Books That Changed Your Life

[Orange]

Do you have any? Maybe one changed your perspective on a topic, or made you dig deeper into a topic, or maybe one helped you out of a dark place. Whatever the reason, post the books that have changed your life.

Here's mine (spoiler'd for size)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

This book is absolutely incredible, and shows you just how down and 'not yourself' drugs can make you. The book is based around, if you couldn't guess, diary entries that Sixx made while he was struggling with heroin addiction - and it's an incredible and somewhat frightening look into the mind of an addict, and how it completely messed him up. Everybody hears "drugs are bad" all the time, but this book shows why drugs are bad. Very powerful book, and even if you're not a fan of Sixx or Motley Crue, I'd still recommend this book to you - because it's that good.

[h]

1984

[stinger]

The Bible

[Deleted]

Night by Elie Wiesel

the Stranger by Albert Camus

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison. now I know I can be a wizard and change reality too.

[Bo Rida]

Another vote for 1984, you can apply so many of it's themes to modern day trends and events and not just politics either.

Also the works of Danny Wallace which is about as far from Orwell as you can get, Join Me made me less selfish and Yes Man made me more open to opportunities (for a while at least).

I suppose Regal writing about drugs had a similar effect on me as the OP, while we're on wrestling books Foley got me back into reading (after over-analysing books I didn't like at school put me off).

[Deleted]

As fake as it is....I read A Million Little Pieces when I was in a Mental Institution, and it struck me at least as a REALLY good book

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Fight Club
The Prince
38 Laws of Power
This is how

[B'Cup x]

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath because Its the book I most relate to and many lines could be applied to my views and outlooks on life (for better or worse)

[The Line]

Slaughter-house Five. No book before or since has impacted me more, and I think it will take something quite profound to take SH5's place. An amazing novel that I read at the right time of my life for it to resonate.

[StuntGranny®]

- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

- Black Boy by Richard Wright

[Alexander The So-so]

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2012 20:20:51 GMT -5 Alexander The So-so said:

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

Read that for a class; enjoyed it but, heh, it did put me off on things.

The Oresteia really showed me the range and depth of human relationships. Don Quixote taught me a lot about being an outsider and the redeeming power of imagination. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? got me into transhumanism. Factotum showed me how messed up modern life can be.

Fight Club, Tropic of Orange, and Watchmen taught me how intricate novels could be, how much you can read into them, and how they can sustain readings. The Sandman got me into mythology and folk tales, among other things.

Blake and Browning got me into poetry. Rodinsky's Room got me interested in London's East End. The Ghost Map and Victorian Babylon got me interested in London in general.

[britishbulldog]

Atlas Shrugged. Read it in 7th grade, started my change of thinking.
Marriage Fitness, great book to understand marriage better. Just wish I had found it sooner.

[Piccolo]

The Stand, by Stephen King. Mock me as you will - I've read and loved a lot of literature in my life, but that book, man. That book.

[britishbulldog]

Aug 28, 2012 21:01:02 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

The Stand, by Stephen King. Mock me as you will - I've read and loved a lot of literature in my life, but that book, man. That book.

One of my favorites. Almost as good as the Dark Tower series. In that regard. Cujo is what got me into reading when I was in 3rd grade.

[Massive G]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X changed the way I thought about a lot of things.

[britishbulldog]

Son of Hamas was very interesting.

[darthalexander]

Aug 28, 2012 21:01:02 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

The Stand, by Stephen King. Mock me as you will - I've read and loved a lot of literature in my life, but that book, man. That book.

I hear you. It hit me the same way. I need to read it again soon. That's the book that got me into reading and I'm so glad it did.

I also have a deep love for The Dead Zone. Then there is also The Dark Tower series. The novella "Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption" also is a big one for me. King doesn't get enough credit. A lot of people think of him as a hack horror writer but I think he's anything but.

There are a lot of books I could list that effected me in various ways - way too many to list.

Edit: If you really want to feel like an insignificant piece of fluff, read some astronomy books. We're like a drop in the ocean when compared to the Universe.

[Citizen Grimm]

The original Box Car Children book.

Why? It was the first ever book I read cover to cover. Growing up, I actually struggled to read, even little things. My parents even bought Hooked on Phonics for me to help me learn how to read and it failed completely.

It wasn't until the second grade when my teacher introduced me to the Box Car Children that I took an interest in reading. Because of that book, I knew from age 7 that I wanted to be an author/journalist.